Natural Way to Kill Grubs?

[forensicmama]

Hi All,

I really appreciate your patience as I ask my novice questions.

Here goes: When I was preparing my raised bed garden a few weeks ago, I noticed a grub (although I didn't recognize it as a grub at first). I picked it out and through it down the hill at the end of the yard.

Now I learn that grubs are hazardous to the garden as they eat the roots to the plants.

So my question is, although I only came across one grub when I was clearing the garden plot, are there any measures I can take to make sure there are no more grubs down there? Is there a natural way to kill grubs?!?!

Thanks for your help!

[opabinia51]

Grubs can eat the roots of plants, each year when I turn my cover crops over I dig up a myriad of grubs that probably chomp down on the abundance of plant matter in my soil, as I turn the soil over (and the grubs up) flocks of robins come in and eat the grubs before they have the chance to dig back into the soil.

(Much to my chagrin)

Anyway, I wouldn't get to worried about finding a few grubs in the garden, if you have a healthy soil, other things will feed on them. But, you can take a shovel the turn the soil over and kill any that you find. Most likely they will be the larvae of beneficial (and some non beneficial) insects that you want in your garden though.

I find hundreds of these things in my garden each year and have very little insect herbivory because I have such a dynamic little ecosystem in the garden.

(Like I say though, any I do dig up... the robins get. Which is also fun to watch.)

[pixelphoto]

check to see if there is a BT for your particular grub or a generic grub BT available.
You can also try semispore bait it helps with grubs and grasshoppers. Its allowed under organic rules and is a natural killer of the grub.

[opabinia51]

BT and using spores of fungi are considered organic and are regulated by state and provincial guidelines but, for me personally, I don't like broadcasting bacterial cells and fungal spores around when I don't know if they are native.